Please join us and help us SPREAD THE WORD (seriously, feel free to forward this now :) for the next Fertile Ground Food Cooperative Community Meeting:
Our Concept
Fertile Ground Food Cooperative (FGFC) is a SE Raleigh-based multi-stakeholder cooperative that highlights the community’s entrepreneurial spirit, helps create pathways to living-wage jobs, increases access to healthy/affordable food, and fosters collective ownership.
Who We Are
· We are a group of residents, leaders and visionaries seeking to establish a multi-stakeholder cooperative that increases access to healthy/affordable food and serves as a community/cultural center in Southeast Raleigh.
· This will be a triple-bottom line enterprise that values the well-being of the community and the planet as much as it values profit.
· We envision FGFC becoming an intergenerational hub for residents to build an alternative economy and foster personal and collective assets. In addition to increasing access to health-conscious affordable food options, this cooperative will host educational programs and cultural events as a vehicle for building customer and membership base.
· Residents of Southeast Raleigh and surrounding areas will be proud to patronize a locally and collectively owned enterprise that is contributing to the health and well-being of their community. Southeast Raleigh’s youth will have a hip and conscious gathering space. Not only will they feel welcomed in this inviting space, they are integral part of it.
· This community-led endeavor will be a model for cooperatives in our state and will be a strong partner within the broader food justice/social justice movements.
7 Cooperative Principles:
1. Voluntary and Open Membership
Cooperatives are voluntary organizations, open to all people able to use its services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, racial, political or religious discrimination.
2. Democratic Member Control
Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members—those who buy the goods or use the services of the cooperative—who actively participate in setting policies and making decisions.
3. Members' Economic Participation
Members contribute equally to, and democratically control, the capital of the cooperative. This benefits members in proportion to the business they conduct with the cooperative rather than on the capital invested.
4. Autonomy and Independence
Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members. If the co-op enters into agreements with other organizations or raises capital from external sources, it is done so based on terms that ensure democratic control by the members and maintains the cooperative’s autonomy.
5. Education, Training and Information
Cooperatives provide education and training for members, elected representatives, managers and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their cooperative. Members also inform the general public about the nature and benefits of cooperatives.
6. Cooperation among Cooperatives
Cooperatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working together through local, national, regional and international structures.
7. Concern for Community
While focusing on member needs, cooperatives work for the sustainable development of communities through policies and programs accepted by the members.